I consider myself a bit of an audiophile when it comes to music. For a good couple of years, I have been diligently reading up on high-definition music and audio equipment, and since the time I started earning, made a conscious effort to procure music and gear that lets my enjoy my music to the fullest.

In keeping up with this recently developed passion, last year, exactly around this time I decided to splurge and buy a pair of Logitech’s flagship universal earphones – the Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 earphones. I bought these off Amazon as I got a great deal on them, and much later, sometime in February or so had my friend finally ship them to me with the rest of my audio gear that he was holding for me.

Around June-July this year, unfortunately catastrophe struck. The connector that goes into the earphones came undone and with it some of the soldering. My TF10s were rendered useless.

Thinking that they were still very much in warranty and thanks to a slew of tragic events in my personal life, I did not get in touch with Logitech/Ultimate Ears until October regarding the same.

On 13th October, I finally bit the bullet and lodged a support request with Logitech (incident number: 111013-003621):

The left unit of my TF10 IEMs no longer works. The module which goes into the housing has come undone without any physical abuse whatsoever.

A picture of the same is attached with this message. As you can see – the part where the removable cable plugs into the left housing itself has come off, as a result there is no sound in the left earpiece.

The earphones were bought on November 27th 2010 as part of the Black Friday sale on Amazon by my friend in the US. I am situated in Mumbai, India. I would like to know how can I avail warranty on these.

I am attaching a screenshot of the purchase + the image of the earphones to help you realize what the problem is. Please advise.

Soon after, I received a response from Logitech the very next day:

Response (Michael) 10/14/2011 03:46 PM
Dear Aditya,

Thank you for contacting Logitech Customer Care. I do apologize for this inconvenience. I’ll be assisting you regarding this concern.

I notice that you have submitted your email to us on 10/13/11. I want to take a moment to apologize for the wait in receiving my response and thank you for your patience.

From your email, I understand that that you have a broken Triple fi 10 vi and since that it was purchase from U.S. you need to provide a U.S. address from your friend so that we can escalate the replacement to our U.S. counterpart because we don’t have an international warranty for this device but it can still be replace just provide an address from the U.S. you can send it from this email.

Thank you for choosing Logitech.

Regards,

Mike
Logitech Customer Care Representative.
www.Logitech.com

As per the said correspondence, I duly responded back to the ticket with my friend’s mailing address and other contact details. But I never heard back from Logitech.

Strike one.

Consequently, I lodged another support request with Logitech on October 24th explaining what had happened, even attaching all the relevant images/documents (incident number: 111024-002104).

After some disciplined follow up by yours truly on Twitter, I was able to get someone’s attention at Logitech, and my case was escalated. I finally received a response on October 29th:

Response (Jerry) 10/30/2011 04:03 AM
Hello Aditya Pandya,

Your case has just been forwarded to me regarding your Logitech Triplefi10 Ultimate Ears.

Regarding a replacement set or earphones, unfortunately that wouldn’t be possible because they are no longer being manufactured. We have none left in our warehouses at all.

However, we could setup a refund for you but it would actually require your friend (who’s name is on the receipt to arrange it). Also, the refund cheques that we send out are only for the North American region, so your friend would need to cash it and either locate another set of earphones on line or forward you the money.

The only other thing that we could offer is another product from our website within the same price range (www.logitech.com)

Let me know what you would like to do.

—
Regards,
Jerry M.
Escalations Manager
www.logitech.com/support

I was heartbroken to hear that the TripleFi10s are no longer in production, and it took me a good few hours to actually accept the fact that I would never get to listen to them, ever again.

However, I did decide to pick out a replacement, and zeroed in on the Ultimate Ears 700, which cost significantly lesser than my $400 TripleFi10s, but given their added comfort and small package size (I’d have to get it shipped back to India), I decided (albeit with a heavy heart) confirm that I’d like the UE700s as a replacement for my broken TF10s.

A day later, I received a call from Logitech USA and after a good twenty minutes, I was assured a replacement pair of UE700 for my trouble, and all I had to do was simply fill up a form:

Response (Glenn Mark) 10/31/2011 06:05 PM
Dear Mr. Pandya,

Thank you for contacting the Logitech Customer Care Team. My name is Glenn, and I will be assisting you with the reference number 111024-002104.

Please fill the form below with your U.S. contact person details in order for us to process the replacement request.

* All details requested in this email are meant to use to verify your product warranty status and availability of the device in certain country.

Name:
Home #:
Mobile #:

Complete Physical Address:
PO Box address is not accepted. Please provide a valid address to ensure the replacement will reach you in a timely manner.

Street:
City:
State/Province:

Postal Code:
Country:

Product Information
——————————
http://logitech-en- ap.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5121

Name in Box or Model Name:
PID or SN #:
M/N#:
P/N:

I hope that I’m able to address your concern.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thank you for choosing Logitech.

Regards,

Glenn
Logitech Customer Care Team (APAC)
www.logitech.com/support

I promptly responded to the message a day later on November 1st with the relevant details and patiently waited for a response. None came.

I followed up again and again – on 5th, 14th and 23rd November, fearing that my warranty period is running out, but never got a response.

Strike two.

Finally, yesterday I decided to lodge yet another support request, this time with Logitech USA (earlier requests were lodged with Logitech Asia Pacific as I’m in India). Once again I repeated my story and today I received the following response (incident number:111123-001188):

Response Via Email (Darel Kim M) 11/23/2011 09:04 AM
Dear Aditya Pandya,

Regarding your request, we would like to let you know that we need the faulty device back first before we can process a replacement unit for you. if you are currently in India, you will need to send it back to us by yourself. We are also not responsible to any cost it may incur you from sending the device from India to U.S.A, and in case that your device lost during shipment. If you are currently in the U.S., please let me know.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to visit our website at http://www.logitech.com, or reply to this e-mail. If you need assistance with logging into your Logitech.com account and/or updating your support incident, you will find the below FAQ’s of assistance.

Answer Title: Logging into my account on Logitech’s support site
Answer Link: http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16704

Answer Title: Using my account on Logitech’s support site
Answer Link: http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16705

Kind Regards,

DK Magno
Logitech Inc.
Customer Care – America

Strike three.

I was shocked beyond belief! After everything that I had gone through, after multiple follow ups for nearly 45 days – via their customer service channel, via Facebook and via Twitter, Logitech/Ultimate Ears has the audacity to ask me to send my broken earphones to US at my own expense, after being promised a replacement without any charge, without any shipping earlier. I am still shaking my head as I am typing this out wondering how a company of such repute, someone who I held such high regard could treat a customer in such poor fashion.

I would have not cared about any of this had I not been asked to wait for 45 days, if Logitech had not wasted my time and energy and offered me a simple solution. Instead, they stalled me, made me lodge multiple customer service requests, made me follow up on Twitter and Facebook nearly half a dozen times, beg and plead that someone could look at my case – to no avail. And then when I was promised a replacement pair of Ultimate Ears 700, nobody bothered responding to my support requests.

And a good 23 days later, Logitech decided to go back on its word and ask me to instead ship my broken earphones to them, without even having the courtesy to explain why I need to do the same after everything that has transpired, nor even offering an explanation regarding what the next steps would be or where I had to mail my earphones.

I am just sick and tired of such appalling standards of customer service meted out by a large corporation of such repute. That too, to a customer who purchases not some $20 earphones, but those which are their top of the line universal earphones worth $400.

The warranty on my earphones expires in a few days, and I am still groping in the dark for some answers. I just hope someone from Logitech is reading this and can help me resolve my issue.

Also, to those fellow audiophiles and music lovers who aspire to own any of Logitech/Ultimate Ears earphones, I would strongly advise to stay away from making such a terrible experience. I am repenting making a purchase over a year ago after such harrowing customer service. This after having dealt with magnificent companies such as MEElectronics, HiFiMan and others who have offered stellar customer service at significantly lower price points.

UPDATE (December 15th)

Since I made the last post, I was finally able to make some headway in claiming warranty. I had to make several calls to their customer service number in the US – and they finally asked me to ship in the earphones. Since I am in India, I had to first ship it to US – a process that cost me $50 via UPS as it was an expensive item and I had to get it shipped ASAP so that a friend could receive the replacements and get it back to India around Christmas.

I sent the earphones in on November 28th, friend received it on December 1st and shipped it out on the 3rd. Logitech had sent in a UPS Ground label to retrieve my broken earphones – which I sent in with ALL original packaging including the box, all accessories (tips, cords, connectors and manuals) and at first they claimed they never received it!

I had to once again make a call, which lasted over 30 minutes (international calling, so you can imagine how expensive it was for me) – they finally acknowledged receiving the package and I gave them my friends address (which was also included with the earphones) for shipping.

That was on December 8th. But since then, Logitech/Ultimate Ears has demonstrated how dishonest their customer service practices are. Check the screenshot below. I rest my case. It has been 63 days and counting, and I am yet to get a replacement. I have spent a good $100 in follow up, shipping and a lot more in the form of mental agony in dealing with an extremely incompetent lot of people at Logitech. Over $100 – which is more than what their earphones (TripleFi 10) cost on Black Friday deals.

If you paid close attention, you would realize that during my earlier correspondence in November too, Logitech claimed they had stopped manufacturing/stocking TripleFi 10 – and then magically they received a new stock – obviously they had to make profits on Black Friday, and so they did have them in stock. But 10 days later, upon receiving my earphones, they conveniently lie and tell me they will be shipping it out. Only upon inquiring further am I told that they don’t have them in stock anymore.

I have never in my life dealt with a company of such stature that treats their customers like garbage and uses such underhanded tactics to deceive them. It is quite apparent that Logitech and Ultimate Ears do not care, nor do they respect their customers.

Final Thoughts

My advice to anyone who is looking to buy anything from Logitech/Ultimate Ears – PLEASE DO NOT BUY THEIR PRODUCTS. I could have probably lived with such dismal customer service had I bought earphones worth $20 or so, but for a product that is valued at $400 by the company, such service is beyond appalling.